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tempted to look before them with the flattering hope of success ; and h £ nce the Unitarians would do well to listen to the suggestions of this moral critic , who inquires whether they do not attach undue importance to opinion , arid dwell more on the promises than on
the restraints of the gospel ? At the same time , he is not sufficiently conversant with them to pronounce on the usual strain of sermons adopted by their ministers . Controversy is not and cannot be excluded from their
pulpits ; but many , if not most , of them , as a matter of taste , prefer practical to polemical subjects , and even where they feel bound by conscience to maintain a truth , or oppose an error , endeavour to contend lawfully , and to
preserve in every argument and remonstrance the spirit ^ f peace and charity . If any one be otherwise minded , he shall bear his own judgment , whosoever he be .
We have freely objected to the Letters , but we have read some passages in them with pleasure ; and we shall conclude with an extract of a passage , in which the figure is happily conceived , and suggests a beautiful moral lesson :
" There is in the moral world no equatorial region , where the gloom of night is immediately succeeded by the full splendour of the risen day . We must patiently wait and quietly hope , through a long and doubtful twilight , till the
sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wing 3 . ' And if the ascending beam first gil $ s the mountain , tops , shall the dweller of the mountain on that account assuror any superiority over the inhabitant of the still benighted plain ?
Ought he not , rather , seeing his day is begun , to ^ set aj ^ a ^ it his owa , appointed , task ; , rejoicing that the impartial luminary is advancing in his course , in due time tp . fill the heavens wi , th glory ' ., and the earth with beauty ?" -rPp . 33 , 34 . < ' t
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Leeds . He has considerable 4 reputation as a preajeher , and we rejoice that he is serving the' public as wett as his own flock by his fine talents . The sermon before us merits the appellation , in its fullest meaning ., of interesting : the composition is <
elegant , and there are passages of great beauty . The preacher first establishes the doctrine proposed in the- title , and then deduces frotn it important practical consequences . In froth points of view , but especiall y the latter , he may be pronounced eminently successful . On the first of his " practical
consequences , " viz . the duty of candour in our judgment of others , Mr . Hutton says " , Let the Christian who calls himself orthodox , for instance , consider which is
the safest way ; on the ground of a difference in faith absolutely to condemn his brother Unitarian , as a person who has not the requisite fear of God in him- ^ -who does not sincerely , humbly , and diligently seek for the truth ; or , to suspend his judgment as -to the universally essential nature of his own faith , to doubt his own
infallibility in interpreting Scripture , and to admit at least the possible genuineness of those virtues to which his brother lays claim , and the existence of which his conduct in life tends not to disprove .
" The Unitarian says , ' I have read my Bible with sincere desires and earnest prayers to discover the truth : my conclusions , nevertheless , are very different from yours : opinions which you deem essential to salvation I cannot find there /
How shall his opponent reply ? He must answer in one of these two ways : let him choose his alternative . irTe must either : say ^ . * I do not believe y 6 u ^ -you are not like Cbk-nelius , a devout and good
man—you have not sincerely ? aii $ > tlUigently sought for the truth : ' or tf > , iP n the other hand , he admit ifie pjLe fy ^ apd sincerity of Jris opponent , £ e . jnust , ; ^ J £ p acknowledge the probability o £ lining included m his o ^ cn ck-eed , tf' ! totot motd than was true , at lei&t more . * th ^ iri ' was essential . * We mustin Shoitv condefmn
* MS btotheri or doubt M ^ oWn infallibility . He ^ faro&t offetf uphis charity ton the altar of his self-confidence , or his self-coi * adence on the altar of his charity ; m 3 | ke question is neither more nor less ? than
this- —Shall the opinion of a fallible m ^ as to the essentiality of a ( certain article of faith , be deemed a piQre ; couvincing propf of , the internal t woral 4 eliuqLueniCy of a } l who , j-ejectit , than tlieappar ^ t moral excelJienc M ^ a ^ nd piety , o £ jlih f ^ e ^ E err &q # 8 panl ^ e flf $ w ^ n ^ pf judgment , and
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Review . —If niton's Ser > non ~ on Piety and Virtue . Ill
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Art . IV .- —rJp $ ety . and Virtue the only Terms of Acceptance aoith God . id Sermon preached an Wednesday ; May 12 , 1819 , at the Unitarian Chapel , Bradford , Id / ore the Presbyterian Minister ^ and TracH Society of the Wesi ^ Udirig of Yorks ^^ ^^ - ' P ^ fe ^ . S •*** . of . tiwMillMUlimg>fw *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 111, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/47/
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